23 December,2016 08:41 AM IST | | PTI
Forced to ring in changes to their squad owing to injuries and poor form, Mumbai will hope to get the act right when they take on Hyderabad in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final
Aditya Tare
Raipur: Forced to ring in changes to their squad owing to injuries and poor form, Mumbai will hope to get the act right when they take on Hyderabad in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final starting today. The team with by far the best record in first-class cricket, Mumbai has rarely fielded a team as inexperienced as the ones that trained at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium yesterday.
While Eknath Kerkar remains the only member of the squad yet to earn a Ranji cap, seven others - Praful Waghela, Kevin D'Almeida, Vijay Gohil, Akshay Girap, Royston Dias, Sufiyan Shaikh and Tushar Deshpande - have a combined tally of 23 matches.
The reigning champions will be without the services of opener Akhil Herwadkar, lower-order batsman Shubham Ranjane and pace bowler Dhawal Kulkarni - all of who are out due to injuries.
The Mumbai selectors have brought in D'Almeida, who scored a triple ton in a local tournament, and batsman Eknath Kerkar into the 15-strong squad while recalling off-spinner Akshay Girap. Mumbai can never be taken for granted, and rival skipper S Badrinath knows it too well. But still, the Hyderabad skipper will fancy his chances when his side takes on the 41-time Ranji champions, putting aside past records.
While Mumbai still have a few players such as captain Aditya Tare, Abhishek Nayar, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Shardul Thakur to make an impact, Hyderabad will be giving their best shot.
The one to look out for from the Hyderabad team would be M Ravi Kiran, their highest wicket-taker, and he would look to fire again against the Mumbai batting line-up.
